Urban foraging

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
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madmedic
Posts: 244
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:03 pm
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Urban foraging

Post by madmedic »

poppypiesdad wrote:Mc Donalds , KFC, Pizza Hut and Chip shop all withing 5 miles

:)
can you get to the KFC? ours is blocked by the new crusty cream doughnut queue.
Give a man fire and he will be warm for a day..
Set him on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life..
short circuit

Re: Urban foraging

Post by short circuit »

pmsl @ poppysdad I like it :lol:
Oh I would love to try get a few cutting of that sweet chestnut tree yummy Arzosah I would love to get some cutting growing of one of the I always glut out on them at christmas time lol
Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: Urban foraging

Post by Arzosah »

Norty poppiesdad!

short circuit, I hadn't thought of trying to grow my own! They're really big, I don't really have the space ... I guess I could grow some in pots, and guerrilla plant them somewhere :)
junmist
Posts: 1496
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 5:39 am

Re: Urban foraging

Post by junmist »

Arzosah wrote:

short circuit, I hadn't thought of trying to grow my own! They're really big, I don't really have the space ... I guess I could grow some in pots, and guerrilla plant them somewhere :)
Trees only grow as big as the root ball bonsai them, a bit more work keeping them alive but do able and I love triming them into shapes :oops: I was into bonsais when I was a bit younger and yes Arzosah you can bonsai your new fruit trees as well and get normal size fruit from them.
:idea: Just relised I can get more fruit trees in the hankychife garden that is mine thank you thank you for jogging my memory
AREA's 5-6 and 4
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Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: Urban foraging

Post by Arzosah »

Wow!

I don't think I'd like the teeny tiny bonsai, but its a really good idea to keep pruning a tree you're growing in a pot, and get crops from it ... I certainly hope to do that with these fruit trees, as you say (I hope they survive this snow! I know trees are used to snow, but I planted them less than 24 hours before the snow hit!). I *love* the idea of of growing my own sweet chestnut trees - I could definitely see planting them this year coming up, and growing them on in pots for 5 years or so, so they're ready to plant out ... I like it :D
Duckie
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:39 pm
Location: Area 10

Re: Urban foraging

Post by Duckie »

Off the top of my head and in close proximity:

FRUIT
Apples,
Blackberries,
Plums,
Rosehips,

TREES
Pine (needles for tea, nuts),
Oak (processed acorns),
Birch (inner bark),
Beech (young leaves, nuts),
Elder (berries, flowers),
Sycamore (sap),
Rowan (berries),

"WEEDS/HERBS"
Rosemary,
Nettles,
Dandelions,
Chickweed,
Sorrel,
Ramsons,
Spear thistles,

Also, not exactly foraging, but I'm near the Tyne and there are hundreds of urban bunnies, pigeons, ducks and other fauna.

It seems like a lot, but I'm not so sure it would be enough to survive off when you consider the quantities you'd need, factored in with how unsafe you'd be while out and about and which season you were in.
junmist
Posts: 1496
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 5:39 am

Re: Urban foraging

Post by junmist »

So went for a walk with the dog this morning and finely in this small corner of Hertfordshire the leaves are braking out from their buds had a nice munch on young hawthorn leaves and noticed that the cowparsly dead nettles stinging nettles chickweed goose foot and a few others are coming up now so will go out with a bag tomorrow and get myself a nice little salad the first of the year mmm
AREA's 5-6 and 4
Feet the original All Terrain Vehicle
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the big fly in
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Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 4:16 pm
Location: UK

Re: Urban foraging

Post by the big fly in »

take take take

time to give give give a little back.

another thing I have done besides plant trees.

was down at my lokal nursary, and found all the mushrooms had expired, so asked if I could get a discount, so got an entire shelf for nothing.

took my cordlis drill and a hammer in to my local forest and now I have butten mushrooms, ouster mushrooms and and all over the place.. all in plain view ... you got to love it.

hint for dowto to with black current.
take cuttings .
put in rooting powder
then in to a grow bag, you can get about 50 in one.
leevet till well established about 2 months in spring.
then all the time get free paper packets from your local cofe shop fill with compost and your cutting
you will now need a hoe
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoe-Chillington ... B007JFOXAC

make a small reeses put you packet in 1/2 way and you will have about a 20% successes rate. this is pretty good!

and in a year or two black curents every where. really good for the wild life. and for you to.
MAN SCOUT ex boy scout

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2ndRateMind
Posts: 182
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:26 am
Location: Bristol

Re: Urban foraging

Post by 2ndRateMind »

the big fly in wrote:take take take

time to give give give a little back.
I really agree with this sentiment. It's all very well to harvest nature's bounty, but we who forage free stuff should really think about investing a little to the advantage of future foragers. That need not cost £sd, either, just a little time to spread productive plants into places were there were none, before. It's for the common good.

Cheers, 2RM
Omnes qui errant non pereunt
Not all who wander are lost
grenfell
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Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2013 7:55 pm

Re: Urban foraging

Post by grenfell »

I don't know if this really counts but today I picked up a small bag of potatoes from a customers bin. Well actually there is nearly always decent food in his bin when I go round, last time a fortnight ago it was a bag of pots, onions and radishes. I also rescued a part bottle of bleech from his other bin and from another customer I picked up an aluminum frying pan, a non working mower , broken branch lopper and a pushchair.On the way back I also stopped to pick some plums ( well more plums as I'd had a load last time too).
Also I've come home in the past with all sorts of things from torches to topsoil as I don't think that foraging should be strictly confined to food stuffs . If it is meant to be foods then I have various berries and nuts within walking distance along with fungi and fish from local waters ( if I had a licence of course). Slightly further , but still under five miles there are wild deer if it ever came to that.